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AIR MAIL’s 10 Best Mystery Books of 2025

A pub trivia night gone wrong! A post-Brexit government conspiracy! A drug-kingpin granny! And much more …

All That Jazz

Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday … a new coffee-table book captures the American music scene of the 1950s with never-before-seen photographs by Lisette Model and text by Langston Hughes

Surviving Picasso

AIR MAIL’s 10 Best Books of 2025

The story of the man who created Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; a bio of William F. Buckley Jr.; a revealing look inside Facebook; a slice of New York history that laid the groundwork for Zohran Mamdani; and more holiday nonfiction reading for every taste!

Editor’s Picks

This week, don’t miss the true story of a family wilderness trip gone wrong, a re-examination of one of Britain’s most misunderstood monarchs, and an illustrated guide to Broadway

The Princess Deception Program

Thirty years on, the journalist who first broke the story of Diana’s betrayal by the BBC’s Martin Bashir reveals the true extent of the cover-up—and why her brother believes its consequences were lethal

Days of Decca

An American in Paris

After crash-landing in occupied France during World War II, a bombardier from Jacksonville, Florida, refused rescue and joined up with the French Resistance instead

“Always Be a Yes”

How the wellness cult OneTaste turned consciousness-raising into alleged sex slavery

Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch

This month in mysteries: a detective novel that foresaw Trump’s spat with his neighbor up north, and a scintillating new season of The Diplomat

Hail, Caesar!

A new book tells the story of Sid Caesar, the often-overlooked Jewish sketch comedian who inspired everyone from Woody Allen to Conan O’Brien

Roger That

The Bastard Sons of Hunter S. Thompson

In an excerpt from his memoir, the former Viacom and MTV C.E.O. recalls getting pitched by Vice’s infamous co-founder, Shane Smith

Editors’ Picks

This week, don’t miss a queer reimagining of 1970s Italian filmmaking, a biography of the “zip” painter Barnett Newman, Thomas Beller’s personal essays, and a dictionary of 2,000 ways to say “rain” in Japanese

Buying Basquiat

Long before Andy Warhol, known for championing Jean-Michel Basquiat, there was Stéphane Janssen—a Belgian art collector in Beverly Hills who recognized the young artist’s genius early on

A Family of Filmmakers

Two of Me brings Eleanor Coppola’s revelatory, 50-year diary project to a close

Marty & Me

¡Ay, Caramba!

Exile in Abu Dhabi hasn’t stopped Spain’s disgraced king, Juan Carlos I, from sounding off on “benevolent” dictator Francisco Franco, Princess Diana, and that infamous safari incident

Across the Universe

From James Baldwin to Stephen Hawking, Dublin to the Bronx, a coffee-table book collects 60 years of photographs by the social-justice advocate and artist Stephen Shames

Ariana Harwicz

As her debut novel inspires a new thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, the Argentinean writer unveils her fifth and darkest book, Unfit

Editor’s Pick

This week, don’t miss Walter Isaacson’s deep dive into the sentence that birthed a nation: “We hold these truths to be self-evident … ”

The Wrecking Crew

Last week’s surprise demolition of the White House’s East Wing wasn’t the first time Trump destroyed a great American building

A Wrinkle in Time

Toni Morrison, Truman Capote, Patti Smith … A new coffee-table book collects Richard Avedon’s portraits of his aging subjects

Of Monsters and Mangione

For a window into the motive of UnitedHealthcare killer Luigi Mangione, one biographer delved deep into the world of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s admirers